Air Intake!

Forgot to mention (no picture either!), threw in a new Air Intake.

The old one was pretty nasty, and was held on with the old ghetto brown silicon couple (complete with AC Idle Up inlet, too bad I don't have AC). Threw in a new red threaded silicon couple and a spiffy chrome blue Air Filter. Looks like a million bucks.

Back in school for 4 months. The car will have to wait. :(

Lol..

Sorry for the lack of pictures. Time is running out and the camera has been taken south for school.

Drained the tranny fluid.. YUCK. 40% of the fluid was tranny fluid.. the other 60%.. not quite sure. I think it looks and smells like ATF.

Anyway, replaced the fluid with cheapo Canadian Tire 75w90, and 90% of the transmission noise went away. Took her for a spin with my dad. (could probably solve the problem with Redline MT-90, oh well.)

No problem doing anything in the car now, very little noise, cruising at 4000 rpm doesn't bust your eardrums either. Car spins on a dime (when we wanted it to) and turns sharp.

Power is smooth all the way from take off.

I leave for school on Friday at noon. Guess that means I'll get to enjoy the car for a single day (not even a full day!).

Still to do... but not urgent:

• Distributor rebuild
• Redo Interior
• Fix doors & locks
• Gut interior & weight reduction????

Woot. 8)

It lives! Really!

All shudder and shake problems are gone! The car is 100% except for the now audible transmission noises. Damn.

Took a peek under it quickly without a flash light. It almost looked like the fill plug was loose and the fluid was leaking past it. I'm off to Edmonton, but will work on the tranny next week. I hope it's just low fluid!

I'd love to pick up some Redline MT-90, but I don't think I'll have any luck with that. Hrmmmm.... 8D

Oh oh oh!

Three wheels polished... and the insurance inspection is complete. Possibly selling the Lexus tomorrow.

:)

MR2 will be getting out into the road soon! Thank god!

You've gotten better at polishing Aluminum (5)

MUCH Shinier!

Only microscratches this time! None of that hardcore sander swirl! (I still used an electric sander this time around! lol)

Remaining work until it's on the road:

-Insurance Inspection

-Rim Painting (25% complete)

-Rim Polishing (50% complete)

Remaining things to toy with:

-Redo interior (Remove carpet & replace with truck bed liner, redo doors, new seats?)

-Make engine valley cover

-Redo air intake (parts otw)

-Redo vacuum lines (parts otw)

-Rebuild distributor

-Replace tranny fluid

-Oil Change

-Upgrade to HIDs

-Convert yellow signal lights to white plastic w/ yellow bulb

Shining Rim!

Ahhh, the damage caused by a sander... That will teach me to not do a complete finish in 1500 grit.

Sexy, no?

Side by side comparison. Much better!

Look, despite my shitty sanding job, it shines!

Oo oo fresh paint!

Well, I got lazy. Didn't finish my sanding with 1000-1500 grit on the wheels. Far away they look like, AWESOME. Close up, ass.

Anyways, one wheel done, cheers! :)

Beauty!

Not Bad eh? She's STILL not done, but hey... I think it looks pretty damn good. I'm off to polish the wheels... ta ta! (PS, it's got 3-4 weeks of dust and crap on it, it hasn't been cleaned for any picture yet)

Throttle!

So the MR2 cable has 9 spun wires holding it together, mine only had 1 of those wires left! (YIKES!) But she's all better now!

The new throttle cable is in place! Picked up the cable for about $8 from http://www.flanderscables.com. Cut the old cable out, put the new cable in, took the old ends and put them on the new cable. Some crafty soldering (thanks Dad!) and two extra end clamps for 'security', and wala!

This cable is slightly larger then the old one, but only by a very small amount. Throttle feels crisp and everything was set perfectly. (ie: Pedal to the floor, engine at WOT, no overly excessive pull on cable)

Soooo. That leaves me with the front air dam, and 1 coat of clear for the rest of the car. Then it's just nit picking over the interior.

Oops, almost forgot to mention, Toyota wanted $275 for a new throttle cable. LOL $8 fix, and I 'could' have done it with $5 worth of cable! Guess this 'Do it yourself' stuff really pays off! hahah

I'm off to paint the front air dam. Chow!

Ok Seriously..

I want to do some work.. Stop it clouds.. Go away. Stop this silly rain!

Oh, first coat of Red on the front air dam... Waiting for rain to stop so I can do the 2nd/3rd/clear.. Lol.

Primed!

Today was a good day! Work brisked along, oil went up, and I got the rust taken off this ole front lip. Was a fair bit, but nothing that serious. Grinded it all off and threw two thick coats of rust check primer onto it!

Tomorrow (depending on if my paint is dried...) I'll toss on the first coat of 'fire red gloss'. By this weekend it should be painted and placed. If the weather is pristine tomorrow night I can put my last coat of clear on the entire car!

Oh boy! After this it's just the throttle cable! (and tiny things like covers and mudflaps!)

Front lip and Flaps arrive!

The front lip has arrived, along with two nice front mud flaps! The weather is absolutely terrible outside, so I've decided to humour you with a picture of my leopard print comforter. (and my little sisters legs? lol)

Tomorrow I'll start sanding and smoothing out the bumper. There is a little hole in the front, but hey, $21 for flaps and a front lip, I cannot complain! Once it's all smoothed up I'll repaint it red and clear it. Then it's just finishing the clear on the car and installing my custom fabbed throttle cable!

Woop woop. She's getting awefully close!

Raaaain

Raining for two days straight. Throttle cable came in the mail last night. Will size it up when the opportunity arrives. This rain really sucks.

That is all. :)

Still Alive!

Hey folks! All is well! The MR2 sounds awesome, runs like a champ, and has minimal vibration induced by the new mounts. I have yet to take her for a spin though.

Throttle cable wire/ends and front lip are on the way here. Once they are on I'll be registering and insuring the MR2.

The Lexus is almost ready to go out the door. Found out I can bike to work in the morning, did a trial run (17 minute bike ride, 12 minute drive). So now that the Lexus won't be needed, I'll probably sell it. Few prospective buyers already, but I'll hold out for the price I want.

Anyway, to summarize:

-MR2 runs well, exhaust is superb and vibration is minimal.

-MR2 clear coating still in the works.

-I can bike to work, Lexus will be for sale soon.

-Throttle cable and Front Lip are in the mail, inbound for the MR2.

Peace!

Daaaamn

First coat of clear on. It was a very thin test coat and it went on beautifully. I'll be slowly but surely adding atleast 2 more thinned coats to the car. Then I'll be topping it with an unthinned thin coat (self leveling, no bubbles) to finish it off.
Look below, compare with the pre-clear picture. The car looks like a winner now! Much darker in person.
Beauty! I love it almost as much as the bugs (especially June Bugs) do. Tonight/tomorrow I'll wet sand, clean with mineral spirits, and recoat. Joy!

Oooh! It's in!

Here it is folks! Yup.. nothing special. Apparently it was a PITA to weld, I wouldn't know, my dad did it for me! (thanks dude!) Looks snazy huhh?

There she is, mounted with Lexus rubber insulators and chain. I'll try and throw a video on tomorrow with the sound! Waiting for my join sealer compound to cure overnight before I fire her up.

Ignore the shoddy paint job, I'm working on it! Look at that pipe, fits the car nicely I'd say!

Sexy huh? That's it for today, hopefully tomorrow is nice and I can start clear coating! If my coworker sells me a scissor jack next week I'll start polishing wheels. :)

G'night folks!

Polishing...

So I cleared the spoiler. It was bug ridden (while wet), it ran, it dripped, and flower pedals became embeded within the clear. But all was not loss, I started polishing today. It is far from a finishing product, but the spoiler does have a nice gloss to it now. I'll be putting clear on the car soon, not today, but soon. Damn thunder storms ruined that for today.

Oh and those spots on the spoiler, I didn't really wash it after polishing, just wiped it down abit. The pollen is so thick in the air it just doesn't pay off to clean it, just gets dirty instantly.

Cheers!

Lessons learned.

Bugs love wet paint.

That is all.

MR2 vs. Nature

Pretty arn't they? All white, fluffy, really beautiful to look at. Guess what?

The little bastards are poised right above my work table! If it isn't ash, it's a freaking flowering tree! I clear coated the spoiler, looked AWESOME, and then I came back to see white flower pedals all over the shiny black finish! Son of a bitch. Ran it inside, it's sitting on the freezer now.

God dammit nature....

New Camera!

Well. I planned on doing some work tonight, but we are burning a stump in the backyard. Ash all over the freaking place. So no painting tonight. Bought a new front lip and set of mudflaps off ebay for $21 (for both!). It will be awhile until it's all here, but hey, no need to fiberglass something up now!

Enjoy the pictures. I was testing out the new camera. Love to do some HDR stuff, but my tripod is in Edmonton.. nuts.

Front Mount + Exhaust!

Front mount is in, and the exhaust is hooked up! I'm not 100% sure if I like the sound. Obviously it's not done yet, I want to put a 90 degree pipe in from the outlet to the tail. So I haven't tightened all the clamps down. There were leaks, which I should have expected! But the overall sound is very unsporty. We'll see....

The mounts introduced a small amount of extra vibration to the cab, but it feels kinda cool. It's not a bad vibration, just makes you feel the engine a little more. You go.. oooooo race car, it doesn't feel like a paint mixer.

Anyway. Not sure what else is to follow today, maybe clear coat on the spoiler and some more underspray on the back end.

Here is a quick video of the 'better' front mount. Pretty sloppy huh? lol

Cheers!

Busted old orange spray paint?!

So apparently the previous previous owner did a wicked orange spraybomb paintjob on the entire MR2. It's plagued me everywhere, he did an excellent job, didn't miss a spot. :( As you can see below, I've got a mix of rust, orange spray paint, and chipping below the doors.. ewww. Lets fix that.

Looks like she's going in for surgery! I masked both sides and the bumper. I'll be going back tomorrow to touch up the back end and raise the underspray up a litle higher just below the bumper corners.

Jim Patson, I commend you on your sticker quality. The sticker must have been made out of some futuristic space material (you know those Japanese...). I couldn't take it off with a razor blade, solvent, or anything like that. I ended up SANDING the damn thing off. Took 1/2 a pad of ... 280? grit. Jeeez. Anyway, it's off. Found out that the bumper is actually raised were that sticker was. Odd, it's like it was part of the bumper!
Please excuse the plastic bag over the tire, the masking tape on the rear bumper, and the cardboard. Just look at the paint. Unbelievable difference! The car actually looks NICE now. I'm so pumped to get the exhaust on and finish up that front lip! Man oh man.

Other side of the car. Check out the bumper. Nice huh? Notice the materials. Tape (not pictured), news paper, and of course, Rubberized undercoating. Oh, also threw on my TwosRus sticker. Not quite sure if I like it.. we'll see. I don't think it will put up a fight like the ole Jim sticker on the back.

Notice the Sunfire? I was performing double duty today. Replaced the starter quickly while my paint was drying! Lots done today. :)

Thats it for now... Front motor mount and driver side trim tomorrow, possibly finishing wet sanding and also painting the eye liners on the hood. G'night folks!

Mounted up and ready to go!

So let me start by introducing my old motor mount. As you can see... It's hurrrrrrrrting. Didn't help that I took a hacksaw to it (to cut through the thin mount insert), but it was already cut straight through! Wasn't firm either, soft and squishy. Anyway, the picture below took place after I smacked it twice with a rubber mallet. Intuition tells me it's not suppose to stay like that.

Here is one of the shiny new red ones! Looks good huh? Inserts as two peices with a metal tube through the middle. Very firm, but they have some give. Scariest part of the whole install was praying I didn't break any bolts! (I managed to break like 6/8 on the heat shield.. lol) I LOADED it up with PB blaster, seemed to do the trick! :)

Now... I'd like to do my front mount, but I have to install a starter in my sister's Sunfire quickly.. *sigh* The jackstands that I need (safety first!) are under her car at the moment. So the rear mount will be tomorrow. I'll also throw in my exhaust! (that's right! It's welded up baby!)

yay!

Mounts are here! Looks like a simple install. I've got a golf tourny tonight, but I'll see if I can get those mounts in afterwards! Oh Boy! 8)

Vrooooming soon!

Finished fitting my exhaust. Holy crap that galvanized steel makes nasty vapours when you cut it. Anyway, the exhaust is fit, just need to do a single weld. The rest will be put together with clamps. I hope it sounds great. I know these mufflers sure cut a lot of noise off the Lexus, so they should do the same for the MR2. (right?) Genuine toyota parts, boo ya! :)

Oh, and more good news! Motor mounts came in! lil bastards want like $20 in COD though, what a rip. I paid $40 for shipping two little peices of plastic, least they could do is not rip me for COD. Oh well, I'll have them home tomorrow and will throw them in over the weekend!

So.. To summarize. Exhaust 90% complete. Motor mounts have arrived. Windshield wipers installed. Car is 80% ready to jump on the road! (and like 40% of it's full potential!)

Do's and Don'ts of Painting.

Things I did, and you should do:

• Wet Sand prior to painting.
• Thoroughly clean the area with water.
• Wipe down with Mineral Spirits prior to painting.

Things I did that you shouldn't do:

• Don't paint in the wind.
• Don't hang your spoiler from a bungie cord... especially in the wind.
• You can do multiple coats, don't try to do it all in one super thick coat.

Results:

Shit load of runs + I managed to lightly paint my face and hands. Go me! Oh well, I'll be wet sanding and clear coating it. So no harm done, just a little more work for me later.

8)

You dirty girl...

Well, I once again completely disregarded my plans and just did "stuff". Starting with the interior. Notice the large pail of laundry detergent? That's right, it took 20L of powered soap to get these damn things clean.

The before... Ewww.. What the hell, did the previous owners work in a coal mine or something?
The set up. Notice the battery charger, it keeps my music playing while I work. I also attempted to work on the exhaust. Removed the old huge fart cannon and sized up the lexus muffler. Should work this way, just need to pick up a 45 degree angled peice of pipe tomorrow. :)
Remember I was talking about those motor mounts? Yup... Scary.. Believe it or not they look worse in person.

Black is back!

She's looking pretty! Painted the trim and the front bumper. My styrofoam isn't big enough, so it's back to the temporary lip drawing board! :(

Here are some pretty pictures! Passenger side only.. haha

November Rain... in May!

Ok. So tomorrow is June 1st, so this weather better smarten up! Haven't done anything the last two days. I did manage to find a large chunk of styrofoam for forming the front lip. Maybe tomorrow after work.

This week I'd like to get the exhaust fabbed up and the front lip curing. If I have time, I'll wash the interior and resand the wing. :)

No pictures, it's cold and wet!

She Speaks!

After hours of listening to her growl, jitter, and chatter, my little MR2 finally made some non-mechanical music!

Speakers and CD player are in, the car sounds marvelous. I cannot BELIEVE how well it sounds with just two front dash speakers. I can now work on the car (with the battery charger attached) and listen to music! Things will start moving much quicker!

Painting the spoiler, I'm an idiot. I sanded it with some very rough sand paper to get rid of some nasty bubbling black paint. Then I didn't follow my own rules and painted right away, without wet sanding to atleast 800 grit. The result? I nice shiny black wing with a shit load of scratch marks. Time to resand! (and repaint.. hope I have enough black left!)

Windshield wipers are repainted, they look nice now that they are glossy and not rust red! The plastic trim peices, omg, so incredible. That Krylon Fusion spray is amazing.

Tried to clean the interior... One of the previous owners had a dog, with a lot of hair. Ugh. Seats are out and in the process of being cleaned. Very dirty seats..

That's all for now folks. Volunteering all day tomorrow, but Sunday I'll try to either clean the interior, paint/sand the wing, or fab up that exhaust.

Cheers!